Communications with an integrated circuit device have traditionally been accomplished using wired technology, such as printed circuit and multi-wire boards. These technologies require a wired link embedded in or on a board or substrate that physically supports one or more IC devices and possibly other components. The wired link may be comprised of an etched conductive trace or conventional wire embedded in the circuit board. An electrical connection between a terminal on the IC device and a via or pad connected to the wire trace facilitates the transmission of a signal to or from the IC device. While such interconnections are the commonly employed method for communicating with IC devices, they incur a number of problems that impact the cost and performance of the IC devices.
The wire traces and associated solder joints of both cited technologies are costly to manufacture and are susceptible to failure both during and after manufacturing. In addition, when wire traces are of a relatively long length, they generate cross-talk between signals and cause additional signal loss due to signal reflections and the resistance of the wire trace. This limits the attainable bandwidth of the interconnecting signals and, thus, the bandwidth of the IC devices. In addition, the traces and terminal connections also consume space on the board or substrate that could otherwise be utilized for supporting a larger number of IC devices or eliminated to create smaller products. As a result, only a small number of pins can be devoted to testing and debugging, so that the amount of system or internal chip data that can be monitored/driven is limited, typically to a few mega-bits-per-second (MBPS), which is generally considered insufficient. This is especially limiting when trying to evaluate or debug systems in real time operating conditions.
These wired technologies are also utilized for system-level communications, i.e., between self-contained devices, such as computers, peripherals, network routers, Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) products and sub-assemblies. In addition, wireless technologies, such as the IEEE 802.11 standard for wireless local area networks or the Bluetooth standard, are commonly used for communication among these types of system-level devices. See, for example, “Information Technology: Telecommunications and Information Exchange Between Systems—Local and Metropolitan Area Networks—Specific Requirements,” ANSI/IEEE Standard 802.11 (1999), incorporated by reference herein. Wireless links, however, have been traditionally restricted to this system-level domain due to their high cost, large size, and relatively low bandwidth compared to wired solutions. The conventional view has been that wireless links are too slow and expensive to compete with wired solutions for relatively short distances. In view of the foregoing, a need exists for a method and apparatus for wireless communication with an IC device being evaluated, tested, debugged, configured or otherwise monitored or controlled.